No idea which way it will go, with one sure target (Justin Schultz) deciding to go to Edmonton instead, and one possible target (Paul Gaustad) coming off the board when Nashville re-signed him yesterday.

As I said last night, and have said all along, despite his grinning denial on breakup day, I still think the Rangers will be players for Zach Parise … unless Lou Lamoriello comes up with a way to keep him at the last minute. But he will be in a lot of teams’ crosshairs, and his price will be very steep. (And won’t it be interesting to see if it will be Parise or Martin Brodeur or both who walk out on the Devils?)

If not Parise? Do the Rangers go hard after Rick Nash (I don’t see Glen Sather bending on Scott Howson’s asking price, and I do expect Philly and maybe some other teams to be willing to give up more than the Rangers)? Or will they be looking to make their splash in a trade? Is Bobby Ryan really going to be available? Will they go after a Ray Whitney or a Shane Doan? Will they try to fill in and improve their second and third lines with character players who can chip in offensively? Because there are a lot of those available.

With Schultz off the board, I wonder if the Rangers will go after Jason Garrison, who has one of the biggest shots from the point in the entire NHL. Because, unless they fail to get a first-line winger, I don’t think the Rangers are going to be able to blow away the competition for Ryan Suter (or trade for Shea WWEber).

A lot of teams have plenty to spend today, so Sather is going to have a tough time getting what he wants or needs.

Here’s one thing I truly believe: I think Brandon Prust will get offers beyond where the Rangers want to go, and if they lose him they will lose a lot of their identity. The Rangers were a nasty team for opponents to play last year, and a lot of that had to do with Prust, willing and wanting to fight every night. He will have to be replaced, and there aren’t many guys in the NHL who can fight like he does and play important minutes and be a heart-and-soul guy (sorry for the cliche, but he is).

But I got the feeling on breakup day that Prust was looking forward to seeing how other teams feel about him and how far they’re willing to go to get him, and I think he will go for the biggest deal he can get. I’m not saying the Rangers should to go silly money to re-sign him. I am saying that if he goes, the Rangers will miss him more than a lot of people (other than John Tortorella) think.

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I’m posting this extra early because I worry that we might have another power outage, or whatever the hell that was yesterday when we were out of business all afternoon and evening.

Prust embodies the Ranger identity. Losing him over a few hundred grand, and the refusal to trade the assets to bring in an impact player like Nash, is Sather taking the lessons learned from his years of failure to an extreme.

Prust had some lustre come off himself with his goofy tweet. If Sather was going to give him the benefit of the doubt before, he won’t now. Besides, there were stretches last year where he got less than 5 minutes per game when he was NOT injured. I hope he gets Gaustad money and has a good career. He was a good Ranger and his play plus our team got him the contract of his life. Both benefitted.

Good morning. I lost some respect and care for Prust with his tweet last week. If that was Richards, MDZ, or Rupp making that tweet everyone here is pissed off right now. The Rangers made Prust what he is today. If he doesnt stay here Ill continue to root for the guy but I fully expect him to become irrelevant on any other team.

Thank you, jpg and Ria! I got called away from the computer for other business.

Prust did “make his bones” as a Ranger – he never made a damned difference in any team before NY – but the weird way the hockey market is working this off-season is absolutely nuts! I can’t believe what the Preds gave Gaustad to re-sign.

Maybe Prust becomes an Islander – or a Debbie (I doubt that latter one!) for all we know.

Didn’t watch a lot of him and honestly don’t even think I’d heard of him before this season but Garrison was launching absolute bombs against the Rangers and a few random FLA i happened to see. Figured then that he would be a good addition but we didn’t have much luck with the last guy that was supposed to have a cannon on the blue line. Wouldn’t mind it if they picked him up though.

And I hope Pruster stays but probably silly to overpay unless a rival is gunning for him…can’t blame him for wanting to get paid….and he will indeed be difficult to replace. Konopka would be a good pickup but still like to see that in addition to resigned Prust

I cant belive they offered PG that many years at that much either. Oh well, on to the next. I hope they gp after Doan, and i hope pruster realizes that its better to make 500 k less per year and win in NYC, then geting dollars and going anywhere else.

So much for schultz. We will end up with a player tha wasnt on any of our radars

oleo, it’s not so much the financial risk (though even an owner as ignorant as Dolan probably isn’t that keen on the thought of his GM repeatedly explaining how he has to bury a contract in the minors – and the new CBA might tighten up on that practice anyway) than that of driving up the expectations of every other free agent you look to sign or re-sign.

And players aren’t likely to look as favourably on any team that starts Reddening players year after year.

“And players aren’t likely to look as favourably on any team that starts Reddening players year after year.”

I hate that argument. Players care about money and success. How many guys in the Rangers lockerroom cared that Wade Redden is in HFD. In fact, I think Reddening players would help if anything, since they know the team will play the best players regardless of the contract

Yeah, but it’s happened once so far. If you’re advocating that the Rangers could tack on extra years to every contract they agree in the knowledge they can just Redden the player the minute they are playing below value, it’s a slightly different beast.

Why not give every player 10 years then, if Dolan and the players don’t care?

Hey outsiders, I’m hearing *big* things about the Rangers and other teams. Nothing I can (or would) really share here except this little nugget: There will be signings today. Players with new teams. Mark it down, outsiders.

(Here’s another bone I’ll throw you all: My sources tell me Prust is playing in the NHL next year but maybe not with the Rangers. Wait and see and I guarantee you I’m right. You heard it here first.)

LW3H: You will hear me curse from Boston if we spend _any_ money on a 4th liner not named Prust. “We think he can give us what Pruster did, except fight / kill penalties, and for only 80% of Prust’s new deal!” That would be a total Sunday ruiner.

Life wouldve been so much easier if Schultz would have signed with us. MDZ wouldve been sent packing much more freely. I still think if we dont make a big splash today (or in the coming weeks/months) we are not improving. We arent good at scoring goals. With Gaborik out for 2 months we may be out of the race early. Of course they’ll end up fighting back to the middle of the EC race but clawing for 2 goals a game is not something I want to see every day.

One more thing to consider- the new CBA. UFAs, that includes Prust, may be willing to accept less long term if the team is offering a front- loaded contract. That gives them more financial assurance.
Secondly, LW is right, I have no doubt that the new CBA will revise AHL demotion for big contracts, if not any. The salary, once in AHL, doesn’t count against total NHL salary value, and the players do not pay the escrow. Considering how meticulous Fehr was in making sure every dollar was accounted for total NHL revenue, no question Battman will do the same when counting players’ share.

I dont think we need Suter and he has no EC team that he’d be willing to go to on his list for a reason… he’s a small-town WC type of guy. Of course I wouldnt mind having him here though. I just really like our defense (with or without MDZ) and think that the priority must be offensive help.

Suter is a premier, first pair on every team defenseman. With an appropriate price tag attached. You don’t just get him because he is available, especially when you have McD and Staal already playing on that side. Unless you plan to trade them.

Ilb, out of the guys you mentioned Staal would have to play on the 3rd pair and then that would open up the idea of a trade involving him next year, especially if he is back to his normal self (as we saw he made great strides in the playoffs)

I would trade Staal for Skinner if I could. If not, I would keep him and play one of the dmen you mentioned on right defense. It’s not the optimum solution, but it’s better than not having enough scoring. You cannot only defend your way to the Stanley Cup. We need to score more than 2.71 gpg in the regular season, and 2.15 gpg in the playoffs. As for the cap, it might be an issue, it might not be. Right now, we have a ton of cap space. Even if you discount it by 10% of the ceiling,it still leaves us with a lot of space. McD’ s next contract will not be cost prohibitive. Staal still has two seasons to go to his expires.

Oleo

You have a point. But only if you believe MdZ still has a lot of room to improve. I don’t. With out getting too much into the reasoning,I think he is pretty much reached his ceiling. Suter is a much better all around defenseman than MDZ. And Suter is still young.

Basically, he suggests that many teams will present their offers to Parise. And that many of them will vanish once they find out $12M will be required upfront. No kidding….Parise is about to benefit from expiring CBA

Funny, this is the first time in years when I can be at the computer on July 1st. I usually have to rely on boneheads’ texts. July 1st is the day when all new resident doctors start their training in my program. Needless to say, I can’t concentrate on hockey that day. Well, the craziness will start tomorrow this year.

Sign Doan or Whitney to a 1 year deal at 12:01 and get moving on a trade for Ryan that does not include Del Zotto, Kreider, Stepan or Hagelin.

They can have any combination of prospects/picks they want, but we need to keep our team in tact or else the trade will be worthless as we don’t have any NHL ready prospects like we’ve had in years past.

Strings? Today is Sunday. Nobody starts giving the new docs regular assignment when the hospital is staffed with limited resources. The way I made their schedule, they’re walking around and observing their senior residents for the next 24 hours. I’m still going to be calling every so often just to make sure, lol

My oldest daughter wants to be a Doctor. She is still only a junior in high school, but she is dead set on going into medicine. any suggestions as far as early or guaranteed med school exceptance programs?

I bet Philly is salivating right now, can’t wait for noon to offer Prust a 2.5m deal. One year removed from 13 goals with 5 shorties. I can’t even believe how silly some of the let Prust go people sound.

Konopka will replace Prust at 12:01 today. Sather loves picking up players that burn us in the playoffs and the timing is perfect to pick up a tough guy with great faceoff skills. Zenon will get the 1.7 million that the Rangers were offering Prust. Honestly, i think Prust is going to Toronto. I think at the end of the day, he just wants to be a Leaf

Why do i get the feeling the Rangers will sign Cheechoo and Gustavsson on 2 way contracts today. Ive read that Jonas idolizes Hank (and we could use the goalie depth). Cheechoo is more of a depth move. I think hes gotta still have it in him to be a goal scorer somewhat

But, you still have your old job. Of course, we’ll have to dock you for the time you missed. We’re running a ball club here. If I give special treatment to you, everyone will want it. Next thing you know its chaos! And I can tell you this, (George closes the door) chaos does not work for the New York Yankees! Not as long as I’m running the show!

Staal triplets will soon be in Carolina for the next decade or so. I agree that Prust will probably be a Leaf. He constantly tweets about his Blue Jays and I think his gf is from there, or from the area at least. Makes sense. I say Burke will give him a 3 year deal for $8 million

As we countdown and I think about Semin, if the price is right I wouldn’t cry too much about him coming here. If the contract is good, and he is not playing well, you can move him. And he did play better under Hunter than Boudreu.

i agree with Manny… Both Ovi’s and Semin’s production went down last two seasons…something was going on in that locker-room. Semin, even if he is playing 75% of the games can still scroe 30 goals and put up 60+ points guaranteed.

Kneejerk reaction says Semin is another Zherdev. Yet Zherdev had 58 points as a Blueshirt. Putting things into perspective that would put him at third in scoring last season, first in scoring the season before that, t-2nd the season before that, and on and on.